What if Don Bluth stayed at Disney?/Frozen
Frozen is a 2013 American 3D computer-animated musical fantasy comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 62th Disney animated feature film, it is inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale "The Snow Queen". It tells the story of a fearless princess who sets off on a journey alongside a rugged iceman, his loyal reindeer, and a naive snowman to find her estranged sister, whose icy powers have inadvertently trapped their kingdom in eternal winter. Frozen underwent several story treatments before being commissioned in 2011, with a screenplay written by Jennifer Lee, who also co-directed with Don Bluth and Chris Buck. The film features the voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Josh Gad, and Santino Fontana. Christophe Beck was hired to compose the film's orchestral score, while Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote the songs. Frozen premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California, on November 19, 2013, had a limited release on November 22 and went into general theatrical release on November 27. It was met with positive reviews and praise for its visuals, screenplay, themes, music, and voice acting; some film critics consider Frozen to be the best Disney animated feature film since the studio's renaissance era. The film also achieved significant commercial success, earning $1.276 billion in worldwide box office revenue, including $400 million in the United States and Canada and $247 million in Japan. It ranks as the highest-grossing animated film of all time, the 13th highest-grossing film of all time, the highest-grossing film of 2013, and the third highest-grossing film in Japan. It was also the highest-earning film with a female director in terms of US earnings, until surpassed by Warner Bros. Pictures' Wonder Woman. With over 18 million home media sales in 2014, it became the best-selling film of the year in the United States. By January 2015, Frozen had become the all-time best-selling Blu-ray Disc in the United States. Frozen won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"), the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film, the BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, five Annie Awards (including Best Animated Feature), two Grammy Awards for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media and Best Song Written for Visual Media ("Let It Go"), and two Critics' Choice Movie Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song ("Let It Go"). An animated short sequel, Frozen Fever, premiered on March 13, 2015, an animated featurette titled Olaf's Frozen Adventure, premiered on November 22, 2017, and a feature-length sequel, Frozen 2, is set for release on November 22, 2019. Plot The film begins with a crew of ice harvesters collecting ice from a frozen lake in the Scandinavian mountains ("Frozen Heart"). Among them is an 8-year old orphan boy named Kristoff, and his reindeer calf Sven, who try to emulate the harvesters but are always shut out. After collecting enough ice, the harvesters load it onto their sled and depart, headed for the town of Arendelle. The scene changes to the castle in the Kingdom of Arendelle. That night, 5-year old Princess Anna is restless, so she tries to wake up her 8-year old sister Elsa to play. Elsa playfully brushes her sister off until Anna mischievously asks, "Do you want to build a snowman?" to which Elsa delightedly agrees. The sisters run down to the ballroom and create a winter field of snow using Elsa's snow magic, enjoying their time with plenty of merriment. They build a snowman, who Elsa names Olaf, claiming "I like warm hugs!" The girls play gleefully with Olaf until Anna makes a leap as Elsa slips on the ice and the blast of power meant to create a pile of snow hits Anna in the head, knocking her unconscious and turning a streak of her hair platinum blonde. Their parents, King Agnarr and Queen Iduna rush in, responding to Elsa's cries of anguish. They check on Anna and she is cold to the touch. Agnarr and Iduna hastily load their daughters onto their horses and ride at full speed into the mountains. As the royal family gallop their horses through the forests at full speed, they pass by Kristoff, who is still being dragged on his sled by Sven. He is intrigued by the trail of ice Elsa left behind by one of the horses, and follows it into an empty clearing that appears to only be populated by a large assortment of moss-covered boulders. From the edge of the clearing, Kristoff watches the royal family appear to ask the boulders for help. Suddenly, the boulders all begin to roll into a circle around the royal family, then unfold themselves, revealing themselves to be the trolls. In fact, the "boulder" that Kristoff is hiding behind is revealed to be another troll, Bulda, who takes Kristoff and Sven in after deciding they are cute (and in part because Sven licks her). Pabbie, the leader of the trolls, shows up and asks whether Elsa was born or cursed with her abilities. After being told she was born with it, Pabbie examines Anna and remarks that it is fortunate that she was hit in the head, as a hit to the heart would have been fatal. He advises the family that it might be best to not have Elsa use her powers around Anna, and alters Anna's memories so she has no knowledge of her sister's powers, remembering only the fun they've had. Pabbie warns Elsa that her powers will grow, and although they are beautiful, they'll be dangerous if she cannot learn to control them, as fear will be her greatest enemy. Subsequently, the castle is closed off to visitors. Staffing is reduced to a minimum, and Elsa is ostracized from everyone, including Anna, in order to protect her from the world until she can learn to control her powers, leaving both sisters distraught and lonely. Despite Anna's best attempts she is unable to rouse Elsa from her room. Their despair only escalates ten years after the accident, when their parents depart on a diplomatic mission for two weeks, Agnarr and Iduna are killed when the ship they are on capsizes in a storm and is swallowed by a huge monstrous wave. Anna goes again to Elsa's door, pleading for consolation from her only remaining family member. But Elsa, though she sits sadly on the other side of the door, refuses to communicate with Anna. Three years later, Elsa is about to be coronated as the Queen of Arendelle. Dignitaries from around Europe are coming to visit, including the Duke of Weselton, who wants to run Arendelle's profits dry. Nobody is more excited than Anna (now voiced by Kristen Bell), as they are finally opening the gates to the kingdom. She is happy to see other people, and hopes for the possibility of meeting that special someone, but Elsa is still concerned about trying to control her powers ("For the First Time in Forever"). As Anna strolls out onto the streets, she crashes into a horse belonging to a charming and handsome visitor, and falls into a rowboat. The visitor apologizes, and introduces himself as Prince Hans of the Southern Isles. Though angered at first by the clumsiness of the stranger, Anna is attracted by Hans' appearance once she lays her eyes on him. She hurries off when she hears the church bells. Elsa remains nervous during the coronation ceremony. The bishop reminds her to take off her gloves before she takes up her golden orb and scepter. Holding them, she turns to face the congregation, but almost immediately, she sees the gold on the orb start to frost over. She returns the orb and scepter hurriedly to the bishop, and puts her gloves back on, narrowly averting disaster. At the coronation reception, one of the servants introduces Elsa and Anna to the crowd. Anna's first friendly interaction with Elsa in years brings quite a delightful feeling to the princess, flustered at first, and seeing Elsa so happy instead of serious and reserved boosts Anna's confidence, prompting her to continue on with the conversation. They're interrupted afterward by their steward Kai introducing the Duke of Weselton who offers Elsa her first dance as queen. Elsa politely declines the offer, but instead playfully volunteers Anna, much to the Duke's delight nonetheless, and the two head off into a comical dance scene. Elsa can't resist chuckling seeing Anna get innocently flustered by the Duke's over-the-top (and incredibly terrible) dancing skills. This causes Anna to feel just as whimsical about the entire matter, for seeing Elsa in such a state is a sight. Anna returns by Elsa's side afterward, commenting on how well things have been going through the day, and expresses her wishes to have things the way they were that night all the time. Elsa does agree though her smile, unfortunately, fades away, and she reluctantly denies Anna's wishes all at once despite failing to explain why. Anna and Hans then sneak off to spend the evening together, quickly realizing the mutual attraction between them. The romantic dance eventually leads to an entire date ("Love is an Open Door"), with the entire night of the young couple being spent bonding. Hans, during their time together, learns of Anna's longing of having someone special in her life, with her sister, apparently developing a dislike of being around her by suddenly shutting Anna out one day when they were kids. Hans openly relates to this, only furthering Anna's connection with him. Hans then promises to never shut Anna out, unlike Elsa, much to the Princess's absolute joy. By the end of their tour throughout the Kingdom, Hans proposes to Anna right on the spot which she immediately accepts. The two head back to the ballroom, where Anna asks for Elsa's blessing on the marriage. Elsa's baffled by the shocking news, but Anna and Hans couldn't appear more excited going on to ramble about the wedding arrangements. Elsa ceases the sudden rambling by denying the marriage, much to Anna's dismay. Elsa asks to speak to Anna alone in private, likely to finally confess her abilities and why it's not wise to marry someone she just met without causing a scene that would surely get her magical nature exposed, but Anna refuses any private conversation, stating whatever Elsa has to say can be said to both her and Hans. Elsa, becoming impatient and frustrated, outright forbids Anna of marrying someone she just met, indirectly telling Anna she knows nothing about true love. This causes Anna to hiss back, telling Elsa all she knows is how to shut people out. Although Elsa is visibly hurt by this, she continues to refuse with the argument only worsening when she orders the guards to end the party early and close the gates. Elsa refuses to grant her blessing on the marriage, setting Anna off on a tirade at her sister, who now not only seems distant emotionally but also seems intent on keeping her from happiness. Unable to contain her emotions, Elsa makes a violent sweep with her arm, causing a barrier of sharp icicles to appear, nearly striking the guests and Anna. Shocked at her unexpected outburst, Elsa rushes from the room. Panicking, Elsa flees with Anna in hot pursuit. As she bolts out the door, she finds a huge crowd waiting for her. When a woman asks Elsa if she's all right, she is frightened enough that she accidentally backs into and freezes an ornamental fountain. The Duke of Weselton demands her to stop, Elsa just pleads for them to stay away before another bolt of ice shoots from her hands in a panic, nearly hitting the Duke and his guards. She keeps running away, sprinting across the waters of the fjord, her feet freezing the water, and vanishes into the woods on the other side of the fjord. Anna calls after Elsa, but as she, Hans, and the other guests watch, the waters of the fjord completely ice over and the air takes on an icy chill. Moments later, snow begins to fall. The Duke begins to panic, declaring they must take action and put an end to Elsa's curse. Anna, however, refuses and volunteers to seek out Elsa herself and make things right, feeling that it is her fault for pushing her. With Hans being left in charge of the kingdom, Anna heads off on her horse to begin her search for her sister. Meanwhile, Elsa has found her way to a high precipice on the kingdom's North Mountain. It is here she realizes that far away from what she was taught, being on her own, she can begin to control her powers ("Let It Go"). She constructs an elaborate ice palace, changes her confining wardrobe into a shimmering ice dress, and vows to stay in seclusion, where she feels she can be herself, and harm no one else. The next morning, Anna is seen traveling slowly through knee-deep snow on horseback. Anna loses her horse after it gets spooked by snow falling from a tree. She travels on foot until nightfall. By the following night, Anna is griping that she wishes Elsa had tropical powers instead of ice powers and is relieved upon finally seeing a building with smoke coming from a chimney. Just then, Anna slips and falls into an ice-cold creek, which freezes her dress stiff. She staggers the rest of the way to the cabin with the chimney, a place known as Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna, run by its burly owner, Oaken. Anna quickly staggers into Oaken's store. Oaken has very little winter gear in stock (as it's supposed to be the offseason). Anna inquires if Elsa has visited recently, but Oaken tells her that she's the only person crazy enough to be out in a storm like this. As if on cue, an adult Kristoff staggers in out of the storm, covered head to foot in snow, seeking to buy some rope, an axe, and carrots for Sven. Oaken can't help but notice that Kristoff is bundled up tightly. Kristoff replies that there happens to be a real howler going on up on the North Mountain. As Anna waits for Oaken to return his attention to her, Kristoff argues with Oaken over the drastic increase in the prices of the items he needs (due to Oaken claiming that there's a supply and demand problem since Kristoff is buying from the almost-bare shelves of the winter department), which ends with Oaken roughly throwing Kristoff out into the snow after the latter makes the mistake of calling him a crook. Kristoff and Sven take refuge in a barn next door to Oaken's store. They are soon met by Anna, who has bought Kristoff's supplies for him, on condition he takes her up the North Mountain immediately. Kristoff reluctantly agrees. Anna and Kristoff set off into the night with Sven driving. As the discussion turns to Elsa, Anna explains about her whirlwind engagement to Hans. Kristoff is incredulous at Anna's foolhardiness in getting engaged to someone she met that day, to the point that he quizzes her about Hans to see how little she really knows about him. However, the conversation is interrupted when the sled is ambushed by a pack of wolves. Kristoff is initially reluctant to let Anna assist him, but Anna proves to be useful and manages to take out a few of the wolves by herself. There is a moment of panic when the two see a gaping ravine up ahead. Kristoff hurriedly throws Anna onto Sven's back, then, just as they reach the cliff, he uses his knife to cut Sven's harness. Anna and Sven successfully clear the chasm, and Kristoff does, just barely, but his sled falls to the bottom of the ravine and explodes. Kristoff is at first upset that his sled is gone (as he'd just paid it off), but after "arguing" with Sven (which consists of Kristoff speaking his own opinion in his own voice and then delivering Sven's "counterargument" in a goofy voice), decides to help Anna keep going, worried for her safety. Anna promises she will replace the sled. Early the next morning, Anna and Kristoff enter a frosted-over glen. They suddenly hear a new voice, which they momentarily think is Sven talking, until a little anthropomorphic snowman named Olaf wanders into the area. The introductions don't go well, as Anna screams and kicks Olaf's head off upon first seeing him. Anna calms down and gives Olaf a carrot to use as a nose. He then introduces himself and says he likes warm hugs. Anna is immediately reminded of the snowman she and Elsa built as kids and realizes Elsa created him. Anna and Kristoff tell Olaf that they want to find Elsa to bring back summer, and Olaf suddenly grows excited; it's his dream to see what summer is like, as he fantasizes in a Bubsy-Berkeley-style dance number ("In Summer"). Anna and Kristoff do not see it fit to reveal that he will melt in the summer heat but follow him as he leads them to Elsa's ice palace. Later that day, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf arrive at Elsa's ice palace. Sven waits at the bottom of the stairway leading up to the front doors, as his feet can't get a grip on the icy steps. Meanwhile, when they get to the front door, Anna tells Kristoff and Olaf to wait outside, warning them that the last time she introduced Elsa to a guy, she froze everything (making Elsa look like an overprotective sister). The dejected Olaf and Kristoff wait on the front steps and start counting to 60 while Anna heads inside. Inside, Anna is stunned at the glorious interior of the palace and, even more amazed, to see the new ice dress Elsa has conjured for herself. Though Elsa is happy to see Anna and quickly forgives her for the argument that happened at the coronation party, she becomes nervous and suggests Anna leave so she can't do any harm to her. The conversation is momentarily interrupted when Olaf crashes the meeting (having taken Anna's request of "give us a minute" quite literally). Elsa is astonished to find that her powers include the ability to conjure up living snowmen. As it turns out, Elsa is surprised to learn that her entire kingdom is frozen, and Anna is surprised in turn to learn that Elsa doesn't know how to stop it. But Anna insists her sister's powers are no reason why they should be so distant. However, having seen Olaf, Elsa flashes back to accidentally hitting Anna in the head with her snow abilities and grows scared, demanding Anna leave. Elsa retreats to the upper portion of the palace, and Anna follows her, pleading with her sister that they can solve this problem together ("For the First Time In Forever (Reprise)"). But Anna's promising to stand by her sister's side and help her, Elsa only grows more agitated and nervous resulting in her magic flaring. This time, a blast of magic bursts out and strikes Anna in the heart. Elsa, in desperation to get her sister to safety, creates a giant snow creature (that Olaf calls "Marshmallow") to throw them out. As revenge, Anna balls up a snowball and throws it at the giant beast. Though it left literally no damage whatsoever, the lack of respect was enough to infuriate Marshmallow and cause him to chase Anna, Kristoff, and Olaf down the North Mountain and most likely eliminate them. Marshmallow manages to corner them at the edge of a cliff, though Kristoff immediately begins digging a snow anchor by using a rope to safely guide himself and Anna down the mountain to safety. Marshmallow, however, catches up to them, though Olaf tries to stop him. Marshmallow, annoyed, kicks Olaf over the cliff and continues his chase for Anna and Kristoff. He pulls them up to his face by the rope, and screams in their face "DON"T COME BACK!". Anna then grabs Kristoff's knife and cuts the rope. This sends the duo plummeting down, though they survive. With his mission to drive them away complete, Marshmallow returns to the ice palace. As they recover from the landing, Kristoff notices that Anna's hair has started to turn white. Fearful that she may be injured, Kristoff takes her to his family...who happen to be a group of rock trolls ― the same ones that saved Anna many years before. Kristoff explains that as he had no family at a young age, the trolls took him and Sven in. A mix-up occurs, and the trolls insist Anna and Kristoff get married ("Fixer Upper"). Anna collapses before the two can be wed by Gothi the Troll Priest, and Pabbie appears and examines Anna, but concludes that this time her sister's powers struck her in the heart. Pabbie cannot save her; Anna's heart has begun to freeze. Pabbie says "an act of true love can melt a frozen heart." Anna quickly tells Kristoff that Hans can surely help, and they take off for Arendelle. Meanwhile, in Arendelle, Hans is providing shelter and help for Arendelle's people. When Anna's horse comes back riderless, Hans asks for volunteers to join him in bringing Anna back. The Duke of Weselton volunteers his two bodyguards and secretly tells them to kill Elsa if they should encounter her. The next morning, Hans' party arrives at Elsa's ice castle. Shortly after they arrive, Hans orders that no harm is to come to Elsa. While everyone agrees, the Duke's thugs quietly disagree, still following the Duke's orders to kill her. The moment they come close enough, Marshmallow reveals himself from the form of snow boulders piled up by the base of the stairs and jumps right into battle. The archer immediately attacks the beast with their arrows, infuriating Marshmallow and causing his ultimate form to be unleashed. Marshmallow is able to hold most of the guards off. Hans, however, proves to be a fierce warrior himself, avoiding each of Marshmallow's attacks and eventually using his sword to slice the snow monster's leg off and cause him to lose balance and begin tumbling over to a large gorge. With Marshmallow wounded, Hans begins heading inside Elsa's castle. Marshmallow, however, doesn't give up, giving one last swing in an attempt to drag Hans down with him. Marshmallow, unfortunately, fails plummets down into the chasm below, apparently to his death. While Hans battles Marshmallow, the Duke's two men have managed to use the distraction to barge up the ice steps and into the castle, where they corner Elsa. Despite her pleading for them to leave her alone, they shoot at her. She quickly forms walls of ice to block their shots. Eventually, she has the beardless thug pinned to a wall by several icicles and is on the verge of using a wall of ice to shove the bearded thug off the balcony. Hans and his men show up just in time and Hans pleads for her to stop, so she doesn't become the monster people accuse her of being. Elsa settles down a bit at Hans' words, realizing the demon she is becoming and halts her magic. The beardless thug, still complying with the orders of the Duke, aims his crossbow at Elsa's head and prepares to shoot her. Hans suddenly runs up and deflects the bow. The arrow is released and hits an icy chandelier, which begins to fall. Elsa tries to run, but the falling chandelier fragments and knocks her unconscious. When Elsa wakes up, she's in a dungeon cell, her hands chained and encased in steel mitts. As she looks out over the frozen kingdom, Hans appears, telling Elsa that Anna has not returned, and pleads with her to stop the winter. Elsa claims she can't, and must be let go to keep others from being harmed. Shortly thereafter, Anna, Kristoff, and Sven arrive at the castle. Anna's condition has grown worse, a chill coursing through her, and more of her hair has turned white. Several of the castle staff escort her in; she looks back as Kristoff and Sven leave. Anna is brought to Hans and tells him that he has to kiss her in order to save her. The castle staff in the room quickly leave to give them privacy. Hans places Anna in a chair, leans in as if to kiss her... and says "Oh, Anna...if only there was someone out there who loved you." As Anna looks at him in shock, Hans explains that as the youngest of 13 brothers, he had no chance at claiming his family's throne as he would be an old man by then, so he went looking for a royal family he could marry into. Unable to get to Elsa, he made Anna's acquaintance and played on her naivety since "you were so desperate for love, you were willing to marry me just like that." He intended to marry her before causing some form of "accident" for Elsa that would clear his path to the throne and make him King of Arendelle. However, with Anna now gravely injured, he plans to simply let her frozen heart overcome her, then stab Elsa, ending the eternal winter. Anna, now hating Hans for his ruthlessness, blatantly spits "You're no match for Elsa." with Hans replying that it is Anna that isn't a match against Elsa. He extinguishes the fire in the nearby fireplace before locking her in the room. Anna collapses with shock, her hair now completely white. Hans goes to speak with the Duke of Weselton and several other dignitaries. He feigns grief and claims that Elsa has killed Anna, but before she died he and Anna recited their wedding vows. In part due to the eternal winter chaos, this apparently is enough to give him full authority to declare Elsa guilty of treason and sentence her to death. The palace guards go to Elsa's cell but are detained when a wall of the cell collapses. While they are held up, Elsa freezes her shackles to the point that they shatter, and then breaks through the wall to the outside. Meanwhile, far from Arendelle, Kristoff and Sven are walking away when Sven urges Kristoff to go back. Kristoff claims he has no need to, but as they look back at Arendelle, a mysterious swirling cloud of snow begins to engulf the kingdom. The two then take off towards the growing danger. Anna's curse becomes stronger with her death process nearly complete. When Olaf arrives, he finds Anna in the library on the ground and quickly dying. Olaf comes to Anna's rescue and starts a fire to warm Anna up. Olaf then asks what happened with the true love's kiss from Hans, to which Anna reveals his treachery and Hans never loved her. Fearing he'll melt, Anna tells Olaf to leave. Not wanting to abandon his new best friend, Olaf stays by her side and nearly melts during this time. Anna brokenheartedly tells Olaf that she doesn't even know what love is anymore. Olaf replies by telling Anna that love is putting someone else before yourself, using Kristoff as an example. This reveals Kristoff's true feelings to Anna, much to Anna's surprise. Suddenly, the library's window bursts open due to the strong winter winds. Olaf rushes to close it, but he then notices Kristoff and Sven rushing across the fjord to the castle. Knowing Kristoff is truly the one that loves Anna, the two try to head out to meet him. Olaf helps Anna up, but in the hallway, ice springs up to block their path. Going out a window, the two slide down the castle's steep roofs. Anna attempts to make her way across the icy fjord, with Olaf close behind. However, as the wind picks up, Olaf is blown away, and Anna finds her hands are turning to ice. Even so, she continues to move forward, calling out Kristoff's name. Meanwhile, Hans finds Elsa wandering the ice of the fjord. Thinking he's come for her, Elsa tells him to leave her alone, and take care of Anna. Hans lies and says that Anna was killed by Elsa's magic. The pain of this causes Elsa to collapse, the snow in the air suddenly hanging in stillness. This then gives Kristoff and Anna the chance to reach each other. But at that moment, Anna hears a sword being drawn a short distance away. In horror, Anna sees Hans about to swing his sword at Elsa and slice her head off. With seconds to choose between saving her own life or Elsa's life, Anna takes one last look at Kristoff and runs towards Elsa. Just as Hans is taking his swing at Elsa, Anna steps in front of him and freezes solid. Hans' sword makes contact with Anna's frozen form, shattering it, and a sudden shockwave throws him brutally backward and knocks him unconscious. Kristoff and Sven arrive seconds later. Seeing Anna turned fully solid, Elsa breaks down in tears, hugging her sister. No one is sure what to say when Anna's icy form begins to change and gain color, and she suddenly melts back to normal. Elsa realizes that love is the key to controlling her powers, and with one move is able to melt all of the snow on the ground in a matter of seconds, including the snow around them, revealing that they are on top of a ship. Olaf, overjoyed, smiles with glee, but the summer heat starts to melt him. Elsa restores him and gives him a small flurry cloud to hover over his body and keep his body temperature below freezing temperature, finally allowing him to live his dream of experiencing summer and all its wonders. When Hans awakens several moments later, he finds Arendelle thawed and peace restored. Kristoff tries to march forward towards Hans to attack him, and Elsa seems touched by Kristoff's protectiveness over her and Anna. Anna, however, decides to confront him instead. Anna then approaches the manipulative and deceptive Hans, who can only stutter with disbelief "But she froze your heart!" Anna coolly replies, "The only frozen heart around here is yours," and sucker-punches Hans over the side of the ship railing. Anna and Elsa then hug, with their friendship restored stronger than ever. As the sisters hug, Anna looks lovingly towards Kristoff, showing that she reciprocated his love. Once again, Arendelle is restored to peace. Elsa is once again accepted as queen, with everyone finally understanding that she is no monster, but a creator of beautiful magic. Exposed as the manipulating liar he is, Hans is arrested and deported back to his own kingdom to face punishment from his twelve older brothers for his deeds. Elsa additionally cuts off all trade with the Duke of Weselton. The Duke tries to claim that he was innocent and a victim of fear. But to no avail, he and his thugs are sent back in disgrace, with Kai deliberately calling the Duke's kingdom "Weaseltown" to annoy him. Some time later, Anna leads a blindfolded Kristoff to the docks, though briefly runs him into a lamppost. She removes the blindfold, and gives Kristoff a new sled and reveals that Elsa has named him the Official Ice Master for the kingdom and so he can be with Anna. He attempts to decline both the sled and the title, too modest to accept, but Anna points out that this is a direct order from the queen. When she asks what his thoughts on the sled are, Kristoff picks up Anna and twirls her around in his arms, exclaiming he loves it, and that he could kiss her. Realizing what he said, Kristoff immediately puts her down, and stammers awkwardly that he'd like to, among several sentences of nonsense, leaving him embarrassingly flustered before Anna kisses his cheek, saying to Kristoff, "We may," and the two share a kiss. Elsa creates an ice rink in one of the castle courtyards and promises to never shut the castle gates again while gifting Anna with a pair of ice skates (made out of snow and ice). Anna is delighted but tells Elsa that she can't skate. Elsa delightfully and playfully helps her, and she is later joined by Olaf. The movie ends with everyone in the village skating, making the most of Elsa's ice rink. In a post-credits scene, it's revealed that Marshmallow has survived his fall into the gorge and (to some degree) reattached his leg. He is seen limping back into the castle, where all he finds is Elsa's old crown. The monster looks around for a moment and smiles. Then, pleasing his inner prince, Marshmallow happily crowns himself ruler of the castle while going back to his neutral and peaceful form smiling and letting out a happy sigh, happily continuing his life in the North Mountain. Voice cast Production Development Origins Walt Disney Productions first began exploring a possible live action/animation biography film of author and poet Hans Christian Andersensometime in late 1937 before the December premiere of its film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first feature-length hand-drawn animated film ever made. In March 1940, Walt Disney suggested a co-production to film producer Samuel Goldwyn, where Goldwyn's studio would shoot the live-action sequences of Andersen's life and Disney's studio would animate Andersen's fairy tales. The animated sequences would be based on some of Andersen's best known works, such as The Little Mermaid, The Little Match Girl, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, The Ugly Duckling, The Red Shoes, and The Emperor's New Clothes. However, the studio encountered difficulty with The Snow Queen, as it could not find a way to adapt and relate the Snow Queen character to modern audiences. Even as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, it was clear that the source material contained great cinematic possibilities, but the Snow Queen character proved to be too problematic. After the United States entered World War II, the studio began to focus on making wartime propaganda, which caused development on the Disney–Goldwyn project to grind to a halt in 1942. Goldwyn went on to produce his own live-action film version in 1952, entitled Hans Christian Andersen, with Danny Kaye as Andersen, Charles Vidor directing, Moss Hart writing, and Frank Loesser penning the songs. All of Andersen's fairy tales were, instead, told in song and ballet in live-action, like the rest of the film. It went on to receive six Academy Award nominations the following year. Back at Disney, The Snow Queen, along with other Andersen fairy tales (including The Little Mermaid), were shelved. Later efforts "Hans Christian Andersen's original version of The Snow Queen is a pretty dark tale and it doesn't translate easily into a film. For us the breakthrough came when we tried to give really human qualities to the Snow Queen. When we decided to make the Snow Queen Elsa and our protagonist Anna sisters, that gave a way to relate to the characters in a way that conveyed what each was going through and that would relate for today's audiences. This film has a lot of complicated characters and complicated relationships in it. There are times when Elsa does villainous things but because you understand where it comes from, from this desire to defend herself, you can always relate to her. 'Inspired by' means exactly that. There is snow and there is ice and there is a Queen, but other than that, we depart from it quite a bit. We do try to bring scope and the scale that you would expect but do it in a way that we can understand the characters and relate to them." In the late 1990s, Walt Disney Feature Animation started developing a new adaptation of The Snow Queen after the tremendous success of their recent films during the Disney Renaissance era (1989–1999), but the project was scrapped completely in late 2002, when Glen Keane reportedly quit the project and went on to work on another project which became Tangled (2010). Even before then, Harvey Fierstein pitched his version of the story to Disney's executives, but was turned down. Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi, Dick Zondag and Dave Goetz reportedly all tried their hand at it, but failed. After a number of unsuccessful attempts from 2000 to 2002, Disney shelved the project again. During one of those attempts, Michael Eisner, then-chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney Company, offered his support to the project and suggested doing it with Oscar-winning director John Lasseter at Pixar after the then-expected renewal of Pixar's contract with Disney. But negotiations between Pixar and Disney collapsed in January 2004 and that contract was never renewed. Instead, Eisner's successor Bob Iger negotiated Disney's purchase of Pixar in January 2006 for $7.4 billion, and Lasseter was promoted to chief creative officer of both Pixar and Disney Animation. The next attempt started in 2008, when Lasseter was able to convince Chris Buck (who co-directed the 1999 film Tarzan for the studio) and Don Bluth (who directed iconic Disney films such as An American Tale, Thumbelina and Anastasia) to return to Walt Disney Animation Studios from Buck's work on Sony Pictures Animation (where Buck had recently co-directed the Oscar-nominated 2007 film Surf's Up) and Bluth's retirement; that September, Bluth pitched several ideas to Lasseter, one of which was The Snow Queen. Bluth later revealed that his initial inspiration for The Snow Queen was not the Andersen fairy tale itself, but that he wanted "to do something different on the definition of true love." "Disney had already done the 'kissed by a prince' thing, so I thought it was time for something new," he recalled. It turned out Lasseter had been interested in The Snow Queen for a long time; back when Pixar was working with Disney on Toy Story in the 1990s, he saw and was "blown away" by some of the pre-production art from Disney's prior attempts. Development began under the title Anna and the Snow Queen, which was planned to be traditionally animated. According to Josh Gad, he first became involved with the film at that early stage, when the plot was still relatively close to the original Andersen fairy tale and Megan Mullally was going to play Elsa. By early 2010, the project entered development hell once again, when the studio again failed to find a way to make the story and the Snow Queen character work. Revitalization On December 22, 2011, following the success of Tangled, Disney announced a new title for the film, Frozen, and a release date of November 27, 2013.] A month later, it was confirmed that the film would be a computer-animated feature in stereoscopic 3D, instead of the originally intended hand-drawn animation. Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez joined the project and started writing songs for Frozen in January 2012. On March 5, 2012, it was announced that Buck would be directing, with Lasseter and Peter Del Vecho producing. After Disney decided to advance The Snow Queen into development again, one of the main challenges Bluth, Buck and Del Vecho faced was the character of the Snow Queen, who was then a villain in their drafts. The studio has a tradition of screening animated films in development every twelve weeks, then holding lengthy "notes sessions" in which its directors and screenwriters from different projects provide extensive "notes" on each other's work. Bluth Buck and Del Vecho presented their storyboards to Lasseter, and the entire production team adjourned to a conference to hear his thoughts on the project. Art director Michael Giaimo later acknowledged Lasseter as the "game changer" of the film: "I remember John saying that the latest version of The Snow Queen story that Don Bluth and his team had come up with was fun, very light-hearted. But the characters didn't resonate. They aren't multi-faceted. Which is why John felt that audiences wouldn't really be able to connect with them." The production team then addressed the film's problems, drafting several variations on The Snow Queen story until the characters and story felt relevant. At that stage, the first major breakthrough was the decision to rewrite the film's protagonist, Anna (who was based on the Gerda character from The Snow Queen), as the younger sibling of Elsa, thereby effectively establishing a family dynamic between the characters. This was unusual in that relationships between sisters are rarely used as a major plot element in American animated films, with the notable exception of Disney's Lilo & Stitch (2002). To fully explore the unique dynamics of such relationships, Disney Animation convened a "Sister Summit," at which women from all over the studio who grew up with sisters were asked to discuss their relationships with their sisters. Writing In March 2012, Jennifer Lee, one of the writers of Wreck-It Ralph, was brought in as screenwriter. Before Lee was brought on board, the efforts of the previous screen and songwriters had "imploded", which allowed the songwriters "to put a lot of their DNA" into the new script. The production team "essentially started over and ... had 17 months," which resulted in a very "intense schedule" and implied "a lot of choices had to be made fast". According to Lee, several core concepts were already in place, such as the film's "frozen heart" hook: "That was a concept and the phrase ... an act of true love will thaw a frozen heart." They already knew the ending involved true love in the sense of the emotional bond between siblings, not romance, in that "Anna was going to save Elsa. We didn’t know how or why." Lee said Edwin Catmull, president of Disney Animation, told her early on about the film's ending: ".. you have to earn that ending. If you do, it will be great. If you don't, it will suck". However, the final version differed sharply from the earlier ones. In the original, Elsa had been evil from the start, kidnapping Anna from her own wedding to intentionally freeze her heart and later descending upon the town with an army of snowmen. "The whole second act was about Anna trying to get to Hans and to kiss him and then Elsa trying to stop her". Buck revealed that the original plot attempted to make Anna sympathetic by focusing on her frustration as the "spare" in relation to the "heir". Thepacing of the revised plot focused on musical comedy with less action and adventure. A breakthrough was the composition of the song "Let It Go" by Lopez and Anderson-Lopez, which forced a reimagining of Elsa as a more complex, vulnerable, and sympathetic character. In The Daily Telegraph's words, the songwriters saw Elsa not as a villain but as "a scared girl struggling to control and come to terms with her gift". "Bobby and Kristen...started talking about what would it feel like be Elsa", Lee said. "And this concept of letting out who she is, that she's kept to herself for so long, and she's alone and free, but then the sadness of the fact [sic] that the last moment is she's alone". Del Vecho explained that "Let It Go" changed Elsa into a person "ruled by fear and Anna was ruled by her own love of other people and her own drive", which caused Lee to "rewrite the first act and then that rippled through the entire movie. So that was when we really found the movie and who these characters were". Another breakthrough was developing the plot twist that Prince Hans, having not even been in the first drafts, would be revealed as the true villain only near the end. Bluth said, "if we were going to make the ending so surprising, you had to believe at one point that Hans was the answer ... when he's not the answer, it's Kristoff ... If you can get the audience to leap ahead and think they have figured it out, you can surprise them by turning it the other way". Lee acknowledged that Hans was written as "sociopathic" and "twisted". "It was difficult to lay the foundation for Anna's belated turn to Kristoff without also making Hans' betrayal of Anna too predictable, in that the audience had to "feel ... her feeling something but not quite understanding it ... Because the minute it is understood, it deflated." In earlier drafts, Anna openly flirted with Kristoff at their first meeting, but that was changed after Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn pointed out that it would confuse and annoy viewers, since Anna was already engaged to Hans. Lee had to work through how to write Anna's personality; some of her colleagues felt Anna should be more dysfunctional and co-dependent. Lee disagreed, but it took her almost a year to convincingly articulate "this is what Anna's journey is. No more than that. No less than that." In the end, Lee successfully argued for a simple coming-of-age story, "where she goes from having a naive view of life and love – because she's lonely – to the most sophisticated and mature view of love, where she's capable of the ultimate love, which is sacrifice". Lee also had to let go of ideas that she liked, such as a scene portraying Anna and Elsa's relationship as teenagers, because they needed to maintain the separation between Anna and Elsa. To construct Anna and Elsa's relationship, Lee found inspiration from her own relationship with her older sister. Lee called her older sister "my Elsa" in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, and walked the red carpet with her at the 86th Academy Awards. Lee explained, "having to ... lose each other and then rediscover each other as adults, that was a big part of my life". The team also turned Olaf from Elsa's obnoxious sidekick into Anna's comically innocent one. Lee's initial response to the original "mean" version of Olaf had been, "Kill the f-ing snowman", and she found Olaf by far "the hardest character to deal with". The problem of how Anna would save Elsa at the climax was solved by story artist John Ripa. At the story meeting where Ripa pitched his take on the story, Lasseter said, "I've never seen anything like that before", followed by a standing ovation. Along the way, the team abandoned a lot of the detail of earlier drafts, such as a troll with a Brooklyn accent to explain the backstory behind Elsa's magical powers, and a regent for whom Lee was hoping to cast comedian Louis C.K. These were excised because they amounted to a "much more complex story than really we felt like we could fit in this 90-minute film". As Del Vecho put it, "the more we tried to explain things at the beginning, the more complicated it got". Given Lee's extensive involvement in the development process, she was promoted to co-director by studio heads Lasseter and Catmull in August 2012, which was announced that November, making Lee the first woman to direct a full-length animated film from Walt Disney Animation Studios. Lee later said that she was "really moved by a lot of what Chris had done" and that they "shared a vision" of the story, having "very similar sensibilities". By November 2012, the team thought they had finally "cracked" the film's story, but according to Del Vecho, in late February 2013 it was realized that it still "wasn't working", which necessitated more rewriting from February through June 2013. He explained, "we rewrote songs, we took out characters and changed everything, and suddenly the movie gelled. But that was close. In hindsight, piece of cake, but during, it was a big struggle." Looking back, Anderson-Lopez joked she and Lopez thought they could have ended up working as "birthday party clowns" if the final product "pulled ... down" their careers and recalled that "we were really writing up until the last minute". In June (five months before the announced release date), the songwriters finally got the film working when they composed the song "For the First Time in Forever", which, in Lopez's words, "became the linchpin of the whole movie". That month, Disney conducted test screenings of the part-completed film with two audiences (one of families and the other of adults) in Phoenix, Arizona, at which Lasseter and Catmull were present. Lee recalled that it was the moment when they realized they "had something, because the reaction was huge". Catmull told her afterwards, "you did it". Casting Actress Kristen Bell was cast as the voice of Anna on March 5, 2012. Lee admitted that Bell's casting selection was influenced after the filmmakers listened to a series of vocal tracks Bell had recorded when she was young, where the actress performed several songs from The Little Mermaid, including "Part of Your World". Bell completed her recording sessions while she was pregnant, and subsequently re-recorded some of her character's lines after her pregnancy, as her voice had deepened. Bell was called in to re-record dialogue for the film "probably 20 times," which is normal for lead roles in Disney animated films whose scripts are still evolving. As for her approach to the role of Anna, Bell enthused that she had "dreamed of being in a Disney animated film" since she was four years old, saying, "I always loved Disney animation, but there was something about the females that was unattainable to me. Their posture was too good and they were too well-spoken, and I feel like I really made this girl much more relatable and weirder and scrappier and more excitable and awkward. I'm really proud of that." Frozen is "a bit of a feminist movie for Disney. I'm really proud of that. It has everything, but it's essentially about sisterhood. I think that these two women are competitive with one another, but always trying to protect each other – sisters are just so complicated. It's such a great relationship to have in movies, especially for young kids." Idina Menzel, a Broadway veteran, was cast as Elsa. Menzel had formerly auditioned for Tangled, but did not get the part. However, Tangled's casting director, Jamie Sparer Roberts, preserved a recording of Menzel's performance on her iPhone, and on the basis of that, asked her to audition along with Bell for Frozen. Before they were officially cast, Menzel and Bell deeply impressed the directors and producers at an early table read; after reading the entire script out loud, they sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" together as a duet, since no music had been composed yet. Bell had suggested that idea when she visited Menzel at her California home to prepare together for the table read. The songwriters were also present for the table read; Anderson-Lopez said "Lasseter was in heaven" upon hearing Menzel and Bell sing in harmony, and from that moment forward, he insisted, "Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel have to be in the movie!" Lee said, "They sung [sic] it like sisters and what you mean to me, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house after they sang." Between December 2012 and June 2013, the casting of additional roles was announced, including Jonathan Groff as Kristoff, Alan Tudyk as the Duke of Weselton, Santino Fontana as Prince Hans, and Josh Gad as Olaf. 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